Gaza City, Sept 15: Senior Palestinians told Israel today that its threat to assassinate Yasser Arafat was a serious mistake after Washington also warned against any move to "remove" the veteran leader. "We are not taking these threats lightly," Mohammed Dahlan, security minister in outgoing Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmud Abbas's government, told.
Israel was waiting for the right moment to assassinate Arafat, Dahlan added, calling such a move a "grave error".
"Israel is not stupid and knows that carrying out an attack against president Arafat or his expulsion would open the door to a bloody conflict and destroy any chance of relaunching the peace process," he said.
Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath also denounced the Israeli threats as "criminal, insolent and stupid".
"Israel would have to face its responsibilities in front of the world as a state of gangsters and not as a real constitutional state," Shaath told here.
Ehud Olmert, who is industry minister and number two in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government, said that the assassination of Arafat would be considered to put a halt to the killing of innocent civilians.
"From a fundamental, moral point of view, I want to put this question to every man of conscience," Olmert told.
"How many more civilians must be killed ... before someone will come and say, 'Hey, let's stop the man who has been responsible for all of this?'" Bureau Report